MEXICAN FILM FESTIVAL 2007 - PREVIEW

ANGELS FROM MEXICO
Back in Australia for it’s second year, the Hola Mexico Film Festival will extend to Perth and Brisbane as well as screening in Sydney and Melbourne (November 15 – December 5), with 10 features in the main program, including Mexican Film Festival Audience Award winner, Calling and Angel.

“In 2007 the world saw ten Mexican Oscar nominees, a Mexican taking home the prestigious Jury Prize in Cannes, and the list goes on…the Festival will reflect this talent,” Festival Director Samuel Douek says. “Every film made an impact in Mexico and in the international film circuit. We’ve worked really hard in getting them to Australia.”

Each of the main ten features of the festival will “bring a unique dimension to create a complete cinematic experience,” says Douek, “from confronting documentaries to light comedies to raw emotional and inspiring stories. Mexico’s most beloved and nominated directors will be recognised as part of the ‘Tribute to Mexico’. Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s first film Amores Perros will be screened alongside Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toros debut Cronos, and Children Of Men director Alfonso Cuaron’s Solo con tu Pareja.”

MAIN FEATURE PROGRAM
CALLING AN ANGEL
(MEXICO 2007, 110 MIN, 35MM)
DIR. PANCHO RODRIGUEZ, HECTOR RODRIGUEZ AND RODOLFO GIZMAN
A mistaken phone call unites three characters who do not know each other, but they respond to the same name; Angeles Flores Fuentes. The characters, confused by a desperate message of love, make decisions that will change the course of their lives.

DRAMA/MEX
DIR. GERARDO NARANJO (MEXICO 2006, 92 MIN, 35MM)
Three human relationships come together in one night in modern Acapulco. This city serves as a stage for an old suicide guy, a fifteen-year-old runaway girl and a young couple, which confronts the difficulties of a tragic break-up.

KM 31
DIR. RIGOBERTO CASTANEDA (MEXICO 2007, 103 MIN, 35MM)
After the tragic death of their mother when they were children, twin sisters Agata and Catalina Hameran developed a special skill, a way of communicating without speaking. After a mysterious accident on Kilometre 31, Agata falls into a coma. Catalina feels the pain and tragedy that her sister feels.

ENLIGHTENED BLOOD
DIR. IVAN AVILA (MEXICO 2007, 104 MIN, 35MM).
Six characters tell us their strange-shared lives. Every so often, a strange mathematics places them on crossed coordinates, which change one character’s life. So that he or she continues in the body of another.

NACIDO SIN
DIR. EVA NORVIND (MEXICO 2007, 86 MIN, DIGITAL)
Born Without is a tender and controversial love story between Jose Flores, born without arms, and the woman that bore him six children through caesarean births and expects another. Jose is often labelled a "beggar" as he travels throughout Mexico playing the harmonica to support his family.

MORIRSE EN DOMINGO
DIR. DANIEL GRUENER (MEXICO 2007, 125 MIN, 35MM)
In this black comedy, death and life mingle and mix in whimsical ways: after a long illness Justo Salas dies at home on Sunday…His family trough his irresponsible nephew, is forced to hire the services of a buzzard, who owns what appears to be a modest funeral parlour.

EL VIOLIN
DIR. FRANCISCO VARGAS (MEXICO 2005, 98 MIN, 35MM)
Set in a small Mexican village during the uprisings of the seventies, the film portrays the tensions between the peasants and military in the Guerrero region. Shot in stunning black and white and unfolding with a dreamlike languor, it transcends traditional social commentary.

CANSADA DE BESAR SAPOS
DIR. JORGE COLON (MEXICO 2006, 90MIN, DIGITAL)
Martha, a beautiful designer believes she’s got her prince charming, but after finding out about his infidelity, she sware to become a ‘Man-iser’. What she doesn’t know is that love is where she least expects it.

1973
DIR. ANTONIO ISORDIA (MEXICO 2005, 96 MIN, DIGITAL)
This dark documentary tells three separate stories of people united by two themes: they were all born in 1973 and in Mexico City. A student trying to obtain power in an organisation known for being corrupt and violent, Mafer, whose life disintegrates in a mixture of partying, drugs and unwanted pregnancies, The last story is of Alejandro Cota, a psychopath serving a 50-year jail sentence for murdering his mother and three siblings.

7 DAYS
DIR. FERNANDO KALIFE (MEXICO, 95 MIN, 35MM)
Claudio (Eduardo Arroyuelo) is a music promoter in Mexico City who lives in the shadow of his older brother. When his brother meets an untimely death, Claudio plans a concert to promote his own name, teaming up with Tony (Jaime Camil), the son of a gangster, whom he owes a lot of money after losing a bet.

Published November 1, 2007